Rona AmbroseMinister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the close combat vehicle procurement, this procurement is going forward exactly as it should. We always try to engage fairness monitors to ensure that the procurement is happening in a fair and transparent manner. I have taken the advice of the fairness monitor and the advice of deputy ministers of Defence and Public Works, and a decision will be communicated to the bidders shortly.

Mr. Speaker, it looks like Public Works has a new role in military procurement, re-rigging rigged procurement processes.

Witness the F-35 secretariat. Now that it has been caught rigging the replacement for the CF-18s, it is re-rigging it all over again in Public Works this time. As for the latest one, the close combat vehicle, we learned from the fairness monistor, I mean monitor, that it got rigged too.

Why can they not hold open and transparent procurement processes? Are the Conservatives addicted to rigging?

Rona AmbroseMinister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women

Mr. Speaker, we make a habit at Public Works, as the contracting authority for the government when we do military procurements, to engage fairness monitors and they are there for exactly this reason.

They are monitors, not monsters. They do a very good job on our behalf and we look to them for good, sound advice to make sure that the process is being followed in a transparent, open and fair manner.

As I said, I have taken the advice of the fairness monitor and also the advice of our legal team and deputy ministers from Public Works and Defence, and the bidders will be communicated to shortly.

Mr. Speaker, it looks like this tendency to make it up as one goes along is spreading along the front benches on the other side.

Last week we learned the Conservatives are shutting down two prisons as well as the Ontario Regional Treatment Centre, but they have no plan for where the inmates will go. Thousands of the most dangerous offenders in this country, including those with serious mental illnesses, are supposed to be moved to facilities that are already full.

We can always tell when the Conservatives are trying to hide their mismanagement. They start holding crime photo ops.

Will the Minister of Public Safety instead table the documents he has based this decision on in the House, or are these reckless cuts simply a result of making up policy on the fly?

Mr. Speaker, what irony coming from the NDP that wants to release all these prisoners right onto the street. Why are they worried about prisoners in prisons?

Canadians gave our government a strong mandate to keep our streets and communities safe. The thrust of our legislation is ensuring that we keep dangerous and repeat offenders behind bars where they belong.

We are not creating new criminals, merely stopping the revolving door. We have not and will not build any new prisons. In fact, due to a lack of new prisoners, we are closing prisons to save taxpayer money.

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are adding 2,700 new cells to existing prisons. So much for saving money.

Leclerc prison just underwent a costly renovation project over the past three years. Since December 2011, over 60 new correctional officers have been hired. This closure smacks of improvisation. It is as though this decision has been made on the back of a napkin, completely in haste, in order to distract from the Conservative scandals.

So, why are the Conservatives going ahead with this closure, after having renovated the facility and hired new staff?

Mr. Speaker, I am puzzled. First of all, the critic says there is no plan. Then the other member gets up and says we are constructing 2,700 new cells. In fact, they cannot even get their stories straight. Do they want prisons? Do they not want prisons?

All we know is that the NDP wants prisoners out on the street. We want them safe and secure, protecting Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, speaking of criminals, let us talk about the robofraud investigation that has moved to Conservative Party headquarters.

The RCMP and Elections Canada are going over the Conservative database to find out who had access with Pierre Poutine, but a funny thing happened. The database has been altered. It seems that key records have been deleted. Holy Watergate, Batman.

Before the member for Peterborough gets up with his usual bizarre countercharge, will he comment on the fact that it is usually the cover-up, not the original crime, that gets one caught in the end?

Dean Del MastroParliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs

Mr. Speaker, once again we see the member opposite doing exactly what the Chief Electoral Officer told him not to do, which is jump to crazy conclusions.

Let us be clear. We have indicated from the get-go and from the outset that we were fully participating in supporting Elections Canada in its work and its research in this regard. We regard any effort to suppress a vote as being completely unacceptable.

What we do know in addition to that is that the NDP does not co-operate with Elections Canada. It has not co-operated in the investigations into the NDP with respect to its own conventions, where it took illegal donations from unions. Why will it not co-operate?

Let us talk about the government's lack of accountability. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the minister of international development, who would not stay in a five-star hotel in posh London because it was not good enough for her. Now she has had to pay the money back.

This is a woman with a long history. Do members remember the thousand-dollar limo joyrides she used to take through the streets of Toronto or the fact that she slashed international development funds so she could live like a queen? Is someone over there not embarrassed by her behaviour? Will someone stand up and apologize to the hard-working Canadian taxpayers? She is living like a queen off their backs.

Mr. Speaker, our government believes very much that all ministers must respect taxpayer dollars. The minister, of course, has repaid the costs in question.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay asked a question earlier that perhaps the member for Thunder Bay—Superior North would have something to say about. I understand that NDP member will now sit as an independent member because he is tired of having his votes suppressed by his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, there is nothing too good for the working class. The Minister of International Cooperation refused to stay at a five-star hotel in London and chose instead to stay at the luxurious Savoy hotel. The price of her hotel room could have covered the cost of vaccinating 140 children living in poor countries. Instead, the minister treated herself to a marble bathroom.

Is she going to use the same sleeping bag defence as the minister responsible for conflicts of interest?

As long as she is wasting public funds, did the minister at least take the shampoo samples from the room?

Mr. Speaker, during a trip to London, the minister for CIDA attended a five-star hotel where the conference was being held, but that was not swanky enough for her. She wanted to go down to the Savoy Hotel and more than double the costs. She was carried the two kilometres from her hotel at the conference in a limo that cost $1,000 a day, while she sat back and sipped orange juice at $16.00 a glass. Ironically, her department suffered almost $400 million in cuts.

Let us get to the real reason why she switched hotels. Will the minister stop ripping off taxpayer dollars because she could not get a smoking room and stop living a millionaire on the taxpayers' dime?

Mr. Speaker, anybody who has looked at the expense disclosures of Liberal ministers when they were in government would know what swanky living was. The difference is this government respects taxpayer dollars, and we expect all ministers to do so. That is why the minister in question has repaid the expenditures in question.